God's Limit's Will Be Sorely Tested If You Buy Lunch On Pentecost!

Pentecost is fast approaching for those in the Churches of God.  This Pentecost is a little different than last years "high" day.  This one is different in what the legalists and Pharisees love to refer to as a "double" sabbath.  The food nazi's are out in force posting warnings before Pentecost.  To them it is  ok to hop in your car and drive 50-150 miles behind some smog belching truck for a combined church service somewhere but it is a grievous sin to stop and get a soda or ice cream cone for the kids.

The Pharisees are making demands of the true believers to do the following. Notice that if you do not follow these expectations and go out to lunch between services then you are severely TESTING God. His mercy only extends so far!  The chances of dying in a car crash on the way home, choking on your food during lunch or having a heart attack during services increase dramatically.  God will NOT be tested by your lunch!

If you don’t already have one, buy a cooler into which you can pack enough food to feed your family and to share if the opportunity arises.
Get acquainted with your local supermarket.
The deli section has cheese, meats, and such things as potato or pasta salad, coleslaw, iced tea, lemonade, and other food that is already prepared and easily consumed.
The produce section has lettuce, cucumbers, and tomatoes for those who like to decorate their sandwiches or salads with such.
Fresh bread or other baked goods from the bakery and what more do you need for a delicious and nourishing meal? [All of which you can buy BEFORE Sabbath or prepare your own BEFORE Sabbath]

Of course remember to pack a bag to stow your trash before putting it in an appropriate receptacle for that purpose.

One more thing to remember, next weekend will be a double Sabbath, so plan accordingly.

Expect some stares and quizzical looks from other brethren as you set up your very own Sabbath meal (once a deacon offered to treat me to lunch and when I told him, “no, this is a Sabbath you know?”, the clueless look on his face made the entire encounter worthwhile). 

There may be many who reason, “I have been buying meals on annual holy days for (fill in the blank) years now and nothing serious ever occurred because of it that I can tell). 

God’s mercy is vast but it does have its limits.

The legalistic mind of the extreme legalists and Pharisees in the Church of God is comical in their justifications.   These chief bastardizers of the law have never kept the law in its entirety and will never be able to. It is an IMPOSSIBILITY!

These men fail to notice that Jesus constantly was in a fight with the legalists and Pharisees but never with the tax collectors, prostitutes, and sinners that were around him.  In fact he sat down to eat with them on many occasions. Almost all of the things he did were done to deliberately provoke the legalists and Pharisees.

On Pentecost as you take out a widow or a family that is struggling financially for lunch, know that what you are doing is good and just and don't let any angry Pharisee wag their fingers in your face.

The people who killed Jesus for disobeying THEIR rules were the legalists and Pharisees.

The legalists and Pharisees are puffed up with pride.  They do the law better than anyone else.  They have set themselves right with God.  External rules are more important than the heart.  Being seen obeying the rules exalts them above the filthy sinners in their midst who are eating lunch in a restaurant while they sit outside on the grass with their styrofoam coolers.  In spite of the external pomposity they portray, deep inside, their hearts are filled with anger, malice and corruption.

Rod Meredith FINALLY Speaks Out and Claims Suicide and Other Deaths are "Tests by God" Against the Faithful

Stung by complete silence after the death of Karl Beyersdorpher and over-the-top public accolades for Bruce Tyler on the front page of his web site, Rod Meredith has finally spoken.  He claims all  of the recent tragedies in the Living Church of God are actually "tests" by his god in a most unusual way.  After a year of many blessings by his god over the year, his god pulled a complete 180 and swiftly started testing the church.  What a cruel god it must be that has to strike down three people that were loved by many and  then lead a man to kill himself just to see how strong the members of LCG are in their faith.

Rod Meredith has never taken any responsibility for anything down through the decades. Everything that happened in his life was a direct result of everyone else around him and never a result of his own dark actions.  It was Garner Ted's fault he was removed as President of two colleges. It was not his fault that he was exiled to Hawaii.  It was all Stan Rader and others. It was not his faulty that he lied on the stage in Tuscon about Leona McNair and then had no problem at all in letting the church  spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to defend his vile, vindictive mouth.  It was not his sermon that drove Terry Ratzmann over the brink, leading him to murder numerous people in an LCG service.

As usual, Meredith seems to place the burden of these envious upon ht members of LCG's shoulders. Members should be in their knees appealing to God as to what they are doing wrong.

Yet, this year, God is “testing” our Church in an unusual way. We have been blessed and the Work is going forward. But we have had three or four terrible tragedies all take place in the last week or two. These events should drive us to our knees even more powerfully and cause us to “cry out” for God’s Spirit as never before! First, one of our fine local members in Paris, France, Mrs. Monique Dalle, was one of those who perished in the well-publicized “mysterious” downing of the EgyptAir airplane in the eastern Mediterranean a couple of weeks ago. She had a family and many brethren who miss her terribly. God allowed this, as He does not protect us from every tragedy—as we all know—yet He does protect most of us most of the time which we have also experienced. We are very sorry for her death and the sorrow that her family must feel. Then, we have recently heard about the deaths of three of our fine ministers—Mr. Bruce Tyler in Australia, Mr. Gideon Benitez in the Philippines and Mr. Karl Beyersdorfer here in the USA. All of these men were very dedicated men who gave of themselves to serve God’s people in many places around the world. Mr. Tyler was an outstanding servant of God who served—often in dangerous situations—in many parts of Australasia. He ably built and held together and helped “grow” the churches all over the Australasian region. Mr. Gideon Benitez was a fine and dedicated minister serving many brethren in the Philippines. And Mr. Karl Beyersdorfer—for many years living in my own hometown, Joplin, MO—was noted as “Mr. B” around the whole region and made himself beloved by constantly serving and giving of himself to the people in that area as Christ’s minister.

The church knew that Beyersdopher had serious bouts of depression and yet I can almost guarantee the they never encouraged him to get professional help.  Therapy has always tended to be looked upon as a tool of Satan.  I certainly hope he went outside the boundaries of the church for help.  He was seeking medical treatment and I hope it included counseling.

However, in Mr. Beyersdorfer’s case, it was a double tragedy in the sense that he took his own life. Hundreds of brethren in that area know that Mr. Beyersdorfer had had quite a number of serious physical ailments—leading to deep depression at times—and finally, about two years ago, completely of his own volition, asked to be removed as the Pastor. He asked that Mr. Gene Hilgenberg carry on and he would just “assist” him as best he could. He was under a great deal of stress and was sometimes not “himself” according to his wife and many others. He was under medical treatment and at the time he took his life was undoubtedly in one of the “spells” under deep depression.

Brethren, Almighty God our Father understands all this. He is called:  “The Father of mercies” (2 Corinthians 1:3). Our Father in heaven knows that all of us have moments of great weakness. We who really understand the Bible are fully aware that God does not judge just according to what we do in some moment of weakness. Although we want all our young people to be fully aware of the awful consequences of suicide, we feel that Mr. Beyersdorfer will eventually be resurrected and be honored for what he did do in the decades of faithful service to God’s people when his physical and mental condition were normal. But we certainly need to pray for Mrs. Beyersdorfer and her whole family in this situation. And she has let me know that she has no problem with me telling you about the nature of his death. It is better that it gets “all out there” now rather than having it come up and be asked of her and others over the months and years to come.

LCG members need to be prepared for more tragedies like this in the coming years.  Satan is on the warpath and hates the LCG.

For this is a time when the attacks of Satan the Devil—the “murderer” and the “liar” (John 8:44)—are going to intensify as never before. So we all need to be ready! The next few years will be the prophesied time when Satan comes down to this earth “having great wrath, because he knows that he has a short time. Now when the dragon saw that he had been cast to the earth, he persecuted the woman who gave birth to the male Child” (Revelation 12:12-13). 

LCG members need to be shaken awake because of the sins in their lives that lead to these tragedies.  They need to be shaken up so that they see what THEY are doing wrong

I urge all of you at this Pentecost time to truly “cry out,” as I have said, and beseech God to pour out His Holy Spirit upon the Church as never before, to inspire us, to empower us with the gifts of His Spirit. May God grant that these events—in the right way—“shake us” and bring us closer to God than we have ever been before. For we cannot and must not take all these terrible events coming on the world for granted. We must use them as events to drive us to our knees and draw us closer to our Creator and to His Son Jesus Christ. 

 You can read Meredith's entire Co-worker letter here.

Dennis offers a balance...Mr. Karl Beyersdorfer Born---Lived---Died

Mr. Karl Beyersdorfer

Born---Lived---Died

The Philistines overtook Saul and his sons; and the Philistines killed Jonathan and Abinadab and Malchi-shua the sons of Saul. 3The battle went heavily against Saul, and the archers hit him; and he was badly wounded by the archers. 4Then Saul said to his armor bearer, "Draw your sword and pierce me through with it, otherwise these uncircumcised will come and pierce me through and make sport of me." But his armor bearer would not, for he was greatly afraid. So Saul took his sword and fell on it.

I Samuel 31:3

(If The Living Church of God won't honor one of its own because they judge him unworthy of their praise, I will)

To Paraphrase Roderick C Meredith...

It is with great sadness that I have to report the death of Mr. Karl Beyersdorfer—one of the earliest ministers to come with this Work way back (when I started yet another version of the Church under me). He was ordained (as a young man back in the 1960's which is good enough, ) in the Church of God and continued his faithful service (as best he could  being conflicted, tired of the drama, controversey , change and foolishness) until the day of his death. Mr. Beyersdorfer was always completely loyal to (himself, perhaps standing far too often on the outside while sitting on the inside which can lead to self conflict and depression.  

Mr. Beyersdorfer, for better or worse, went along , as do we all far too often, to get along as best he could while struggling with depression which was his anger turned inward not feeling he had the right to express it, or the cost of doing so would be too high in the Living Church of God. He was only a man just like all others.) and feed the flock in the idealism and naivete' of his his youth as best he could as did we all. 

As a pioneer minister in the (World Wide Church of  God) Global Church of God—now Living Church of God—he helped build this Work with all ( the crazy places he was transferred to with little or no say about it.) He was a faithful human being as best he knew how under (leadership that was far less than ideal). He was a brave man.   So he set an example of faith and courage (just as good and sometimes better , and sometimes worse than any man).

Sadly, in time the battle went hard against him and the archers wounded him grievously in ways and  for reasons only he would have known and emotions only he would have felt.  Sadly, Karl felt no hope in sharing his heart, mind and soul with his peers and certainly not with the Presiding Evangelist or his Board of the Brain Dead .  

Karl lived his life the best he could as at any one time in all our lives, IS the best one can do even if less than perfect or we'd do something else.  Karl understood that the "shoulds" and "musts" of religion don't always match and can conflict with our "can'ts " and "won'ts" often and with power we might not understand ourselves.

Suicide is a taboo subject in most churches.  Meanings and judgments are assigned to such events that make their long term solution to relatively short term problems even harder on surviving family.  When on commits suicide they fail to realize in the emotions and despair of the moment that they will be transferring all their inner pain and turmoil from themselves to their friends and family.  They also fail to realize that it won't solve the problems they feel, the despair they experience and the depression or anxiety they suffer through.  They won't feel anything.    

Let us take heart in the words of the Apostle Paul in Romans 7:

 15I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. 16And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. 17As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. 18For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature.^c For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. 20Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.

21So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. 22For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; 23but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. 24What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? 25Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!

The Apostle Paul  conveniently did not share with us just what exactly it was specifically he did that he hated and he could not do what he thought he should, but we can appreciate his candid humanity on how life really works even among the righteous or at least with those who can admit it.  Admitting shortcomings and conflict of mind and heart to one's peers or pastor can be fatal to many of one's actual intentions and hopes. 

Let us take heart in knowing that in some way , Jesus himself , in despair, sweating blood and left to his fear and despair by sleeping disciples, chose to take his own life in the form of suicide by Romans or "cop" as we might say today.  When Jesus overturned the tables of the money changers, whose presence was actually required to turn filthy Roman coin into Temple coin with which to properly purchase Temple sacrifices, he sealed his fate.  And while John says Jesus did this at the beginning of his ministry, other Gospel writers moved it to the end of the story as a good reason for Jesus to put the final touches on his sure suicide by Romans. Jesus is said to have died for our sins. Karl died , in part, to illustrate the sins and shortcomings of the Church.  Karl endured many more decades of cognitive dissonance under the Armstrongs, Tkaches and Merediths than Jesus did with the religionists of his day  in his mere one year or three year ministry depending on which Gospel one read. We all put up with a lot...way too much because we still thought it was the church in spite of the near yearly scandals.   Fifty years endeavoring to figure out the Bible and those who believe they know what it all means and how it all is , is an amazing and sincere example of patience and endurance under fire. Well done Karl.

Karl had and lived his own story, as do we all.  No two stories are alike no can or should they be.  No two people view their life events, successes and failures in quite the same way.  Some environments offer hope and safety in times of trouble and some offer more trouble in times of trouble for sharing and caring. Karl lived his life in a toxic religious  environment full of hope for the future dictated by men who actually knew little or nothing about it. And so it still is today.

Our deepest condolences and non-judgement of a life well lived to the family and friends of Mr. Karl Beyersdorfer.  

The battle went hard against him and for not being there to love, console and offer compassionate encouragement , and perhaps even physical help, we are all deeply sorry.  Like many who suffer in silence, we simply did not know you needed it to get through the fears and disappointments we all suffer in this life .  We are also so very sorry to the family that "The Living Church of God" does not, in the reality of such events,  have the love of Christ they so often speak about with fine words and scripture. 

Note:  Please do not make all or any donations to The Living Church of God. Karl would probably be displeased. And with regards to eternity...Karl is just fine.

And please take a moment to remind LCG they should be absolutely ashamed of themselves and successfully have served as a terrible example in not honoring one of their own no matter how they passed from this life.

True COG Members Warned To Download All HWA Material On Thumb-drives Before Government Confiscates It All

Extremist Armstrongites on Yahoo are preparing for horrible times ahead for Church of God faithful as the government will soon be shutting down all "true" COG sites, confiscating booklets, videos, and publications.  Angry leftists will soon be confiscating everything that Herbert Armstrong ever published and will be destroying it.  Dire warnings warn true believers to download it all on thumb-drives and put it in safe deposit boxes in banks.  Also be prepared to guard it with your rifle!

So.....putting all of those booklets on thumb-drives in banks is a smart idea when every single COG false prophet claims the banks will soon fail?  Not a very bright idea.

Sooner or later, all such sites will be shut down. I would strongly suggest downloading every bit of old material you can WHILE you can. Even if you own paper copies of the booklets and magazines you need to have digital copies as well. If you have a safe deposit box at your local bank, you should, I would suggest backing up all your Church material on a thumb drive and putting it in there. Don't rely on a cloud service....to put it bluntly, if you can't stand in front of it and guard it with your rifle...you don''t really own it. 

Yahoo is the appropriate place of these yahoo's.

LCG Memorializes One Dead Elder and Ignores Another

The blatant hypocrisy of the Living Church of God is on display on the front page of their web site.  LCG has lost two of it ministers in the lasts several weeks.  You will only see a memorial to one of them.

LCG's main page has the following memorial link to a letter by Rod Meredith glorifying Bruce Tyler:

Yet, nowhere on their site will you find any memorial to Karl Beyersdorfer who was loved by LCG members just as much as Bruce Tyler was.

Why Does The Church of God Need A "Warrior" God?

One of the glaring differences between the God and Jesus of the Churches of God and mainstream Christianity is the type of god they picture up in heaven looking down upon them.

Outside of far right fundamentalist/literalist churches, God and Jesus tend to be pictured more as a loving God that is the gentle watchful shepherd, the compassionate god that dines with the marginalized of society, slow to anger and walks alongside those with problems in life.

Then there is the god of the Church of God movement.  A god that is eternally pissed at his creation even though he knew before the foundations of the world that they were going to sin , but he created them anyway so that they could die later.  A god that is wrathful and filled with vengeance and is ready to strike down all who piss him off.  A god that is going to wipe out a 1/3 of humanity, just because he needs to teach them a lesson.  A god that needs to used massive earthquakes, devastating floods, tornadoes, and other natural disasters to "spank" people that tick him off.  A god that is going to gleefully destroy the United States, England, Australia, New Zealand and others, allowing them to die of starvation, disease, war and be placed in concentration camps or made as slaves to European citizens.

The Warrior God is essential to the Churches of God.  Without the warrior god, Bob Thiel, James Malm, Rod Meredith, Gerald Flurry and Ron Weinland would not be able to exist.  It is essential to these "men" that they scare people to death.  Frightened people tend to look towards those who claim to be more enlightened and have the answers.

Fortunately most of us have realized that these "men" are morally and spiritual bankrupt and have no answers.

Original Ambassador Reports In Color

The Painful Truth has been graciously been given the original color issues of the Ambassador Report that came out in June of 1976.  For many decades the most any of us have seen online has been either scans or the articles painstakingly typed out and posted.  Check the first three issues here:

Ambassador Review (1)

Ambassador Report (2)

Ambassador Report (3)

All of the Church of God related sites, blogs and newsgroups that exist today owe their existence to these foundational works.  Ambassador Review/Report set into motion the ultimate downfall of the church into hundreds and hundreds of irrelevant little groups that do not have the ability to ever match what the mother church originally accomplished.  The corruption was massive and widespread at that time and still is today in the hundreds of splinter groups.

The widespread use of the internet that exploded in the early 1990's brought the corruption into the living rooms of church members around the world.  The church could no longer cover up or keep secret things that they were doing.  From the denials that doctrines were changing to exposé's of lying evangelists starting new churches, the stories became tangible evidence that things were no longer "kosher" in the Church of God.

Because of this widespread exposure countless Churches of God have never been able to accomplish the dreams and lofty goals they wish for. 

UCG Struggle With Women Writers, Is It Even Part Of The Law That Women Remain Silent?

Church of God News had a blog entry the other day quoting my posting about UCG's battle over women writers in their publications.  This is all in response to the over-delicate and over-sensitive men who just CANNOT  get over the myth that women must remain silent and subservient to them.  After all, God's mightiest holy apostle laid down the law that there is a power structure in the church with women at the bottom, just above their children and animals.

GOD

Jesus

Herbert Armstrong

Evangelists

Paid Ministry

Non-paid Ministry

Retired Ministry

Men

Women

Children

Animals

Rest of creation

This is what Church of God News posted:

Rex Sexton began the session (3mins.) by reading from a “public form letter that is sent out when people write to UCG here and ask about women writing.” He read from the form letter, quoting v.34: “Let your women keep silent in the churches, for they are not permitted to speak; but they are to be submissive, as the law of God says.” 

The Freudian slip of adding the phrase “of God” to this verse reveals the subconscious mind set of church leaders - who know that this statement of the role of women in church (or rather lack of it) cannot be found in the law of God. 

In 1 Corinthians 7 Paul begins to address “the things of which you wrote to me.” The first of these is (v.1-2): “It is good for a man not to touch a woman. Nevertheless, because of sexual immorality, let each man have his own wife, and let each woman have her own husband.” 

Paul expresses his ideal view in v.7-8: “I wish that all men were even as I myself. But each one has his own gift from God, one in this manner and another in that. But I say to the unmarried and to the widows: It is good for them if they remain even as I am.” 

How can it be good for them, if a “law of God” hampers their learning, as they do not have husbands to teach them at home? (14:35) 

The ISV also adds to the literal text of 14:34: “The women must keep silent in the churches. They are not allowed to speak out, but must place themselves in submission, as the oral law also says.” 

The translators of the ISV realized that the law referred to here is an oral law of Judaism, which the Orthodox Jews continue to observe today. Only men may speak in the churches (synagogues), only men may sing. Women were segregated and must remain silent. Women were expected to marry when young, and their husbands (who had received religious instruction as boys - which girls did not) were expected to teach their wives at home - “if they want to learn something”. 

1 Corinthians 14:34-35 is another of “the things of which you wrote to me.”

In v.36 he gives a disdainful response to their “law” with this rhetorical question:

“Did God's word originate with you? Are you the only people it has reached?”

UCG's men are so conditioned by HWA, Meredith and others postulating on the role of women that their responses are automatic.  They think it is true because the Apostle said it.  Never have these men really studied into the background of Paul, why he wrote what the did in the way he did.

Assumptions have always been the foundational model for Church of God beliefs.  Due the cherry-picking and proof-texting that the church uses, doctrines and church teachings have been decided by men who are without much theological education and who are incapable of sound research methods.

It's time for women to start teaching the men because so far the men have done an extremely poor job.

UCG Women: Be Seen, Don't Preach, Be Silent and Above All Don't Write In Case A Man Reads Your Article

It's hard  believe in 2016 that UCG still can't get its act together in regards to women writing for church publications.  The patriarchal hierarchy of UCG seems miffed that women are writing better than they are.  It continues to be such a sore spot that it had to be brought up AGAIN by whiney little men in the church.

From the latest Council of Elders Report:

Role of Women in Media—Rex Sexton 

Rex Sexton, the chair of the Media and Communications Committee (MCC), led the discussion on the role of women authors in media publications. The discussion began on March 1 and is continuing as a discussion with the Council to see if there is anything to be remanded to the MCC or not. The genesis of this discussion was raised by someone on the committee during a standard editorial review.

Mr. Sexton began by mentioning the importance of God’s love and God’s laws. God’s laws are to guide in making correct judgments.

Since when?

There is a form letter response that the home office has been operating from for over 15 years, and the discussion today was to find out if further official review was warranted and if it would possibly be remanded to the committee for recommendations, including the possibility of a policy statement. There was much discussion from the media department to give their input and, there was discussion from the Council as well.

Scott Ashley, as a key member of the media department, explained his review process for many years and shared a letter written by one of our women contributors regarding why and how she wrote.

Why do women have to write letters to DEFEND why and how they wrote something?  Has any man in UCG ever had to do that????

There was discussion regarding the possible “blurring” of what is doctrinal and what is “Christian living” type of articles and appreciating the fine line that needs to be considered by reviewers in regards to editorial contributions submitted by women.

Silly women!  How dare you "blur the line" between doctrine and Christian living!  How theological immature and bankrupt that kind of reasoning is, but that is what UCG does all the time.

Robin Webber thanked everyone for their comments. His personal thought was to avoid a policy at this time. We currently have a form letter that is in place, and we have a structure that has oversight in the standard review process, which includes the Council at this time. Mr. Webber emphasized placing trust and confidence in the administration and not to create a policy at this time.

Bill Bradford commented that guidelines were mentioned, but he isn’t sure that those guidelines are understood. The Council should be able to create a policy based on God’s laws, and it can be done if we need it done in the future.

The Council settled for simply the discussion, and no formal action was rendered beyond the ongoing editorial review with every article that is submitted by everyone, whether man or woman.

Rex Sexton thanked everyone for their discussions and input. This discussion is very valuable to clarify for everyone on the editorial team what guidelines we are following and the process when questions come up.

Mr. Webber felt that both discussions on this subject were useful in moving forward towards adhering to biblical principles as well as appreciating the contributions of women.

The Council went into scheduled executive session to discuss ordinations for about an hour.